What I learned about Faith, Myself, and Young Life on the highest peak in Africa.
In Young Life we attend many trainings, discuss strategies, hold open doors in the mornings at the high school, clean round tables alongside our work crew friends, etc. Although I have a limited perspective and a short tenure on staff so far, I’d argue the grit and beauty of ministry is found in the “one step at a time.”
We walked one step at a time to get up Mt. Kilimanjaro, and it painted a beautiful parallel to the job we do in Young Life.
This dream was eight years in the making for my Dad (Rodney Huffty) and myself. We had the privilege of going with an organization called “Beyond Adventures” and this team made up of 65 Tanzanian guides and porters. They helped our group of 16 make it to the summit of Kilimanjaro, which stands 19,341 feet tall.
Jesus models going one step at a time for us when we think about the beginning of his ministry all the way up to the cross. God, all-knowing and ever-present, lived in the daily rhythms as we do. He understood the assignment or the goal all along and simultaneously Jesus made his home in day-to-day moments. He limited himself to not being everywhere all at once and not accomplishing everything all at once. Each step mattered and contributed to a grander picture. One no one could have fathomed or imagined.
Our guides on Kilimanjaro told us three rules at the start of the trip: #1 Trust your guide, #2 Trust your guide, and #3 Trust your guide. There were times we walked painfully slow and I grew impatient to just arrive. But to trust them in the process of the climb didn’t just teach me something, I saw my character being shaped and molded along the way. It was a holy breaking for me to feel so helpless and so dependent on these guides, especially in the stubborn moments I wanted to prove myself. They carried things on my behalf and I had to let them.
These steps we take are never wasted. Even when they feel slow, they are always on time.
Written by: Kally Huffty (Kally.Huffty@gmail.com)